International Development in Practice

9 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/29863

Books in the International Development in Practice series provide quality, practical (“how to”) guidance that can be applied by practitioners in the development arena. These books draw on experience and analysis gleaned from the World Bank’s operational work.

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Digital Businesses and Beyond: A Diagnostic Toolkit
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-10-18) Zhu, Tingting Juni; Cruz, Marcio
An entrepreneurial ecosystem is characterized by the structure and interactions of organizations, firms, institutions, and individuals in a specific locale that is conducive to entrepreneurship. It can be defined as a set of interdependent actors and factors that are governed in such a way that they enable productive entrepreneurship in a particular territory. The World Bank has developed a new toolkit, Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Digital Businesses and Beyond, for entrepreneurial ecosystem assessments, including dedicated methodologies and data sets, to nurture digital entrepreneurship. This toolkit builds on the World Bank’s expertise in collecting and analyzing firm-level data, assessing the quality and efficiency of policies that support innovation and small and medium enterprises, and deriving insights from spatial economics to inform subnational analysis. The toolkit consists of six modules: cross-country context analysis, assessing local entrepreneurial ecosystems, digital entrepreneurship and tech start-ups, mapping public programs and intermediary organizations, digital market regulations, and policy options to support entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Planning National Telemedicine and Health Hotline Services: A Toolkit for Governments
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023) World Bank
For many low- and middle-income countries, telemedicine and health hotlines are the best way to increase community access to health information and health care. This became even more apparent during the coronavirus pandemic, when countries with low health-care-worker-to-population ratios--and large populations that do not live close to a health center--needed better ways for their citizens to access health information and care. These services have played an important role in filling access gaps for decades, but to ensure they sustain impact at a national scale, the government must be brought in from the beginning with a longer-term plan for the government to steward the solution. For a solution to be sustainable, it must be incorporated into country strategies and budgets, and the government must have ownership of the solution, even if all or parts of the operation are outsourced. This toolkit focuses on health hotlines and telemedicine, specifically on the telemedicine systems used for primary care services, rather than those for specialized care such as tele-dermatology, tele-oncology, and others. This toolkit will outline the multi-phased approach needed to set up a health hotline or telemedicine service at a national scale while providing tools that can be used to, for example, cost out and design the system, contract service providers, or engage mobile network operators.
Planning National Telemedicine and Health Hotline Services: A Toolkit for Service Providers Working with Governments
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023) World Bank
For many low- and middle-income countries, digital health solutions are the best way to increase community access to health information and health care. This became even more apparent during the coronavirus pandemic, when countries with low health-care-worker-to-population ratios--and large populations that do not live close to a health center--needed better ways for their citizens to access health services. In many countries, telemedicine and health hotline services have played an important role in filling access gaps, which can present private sector providers with opportunities for growth. When the private sector and government work together it can lead to major advances in health services that reach more communities. However, just because a solution is impactful does not mean it will be sustainable. To ensure any solution sustains impact at scale, it is important for the government to lead it from the beginning, and eventually regulate, and perhaps own, the solution even if it outsources all, or parts, of it to service providers. This toolkit is designed for software or call center service providers interested in working with government to establish nationwide telemedicine or health hotline services.
A Guiding Framework for Nutrition Public Expenditure Reviews
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-05-04) Wang, Huihui; Winoto Subandoro, Ali; Tanimichi Hoberg, Yurie; Qureshy, Lubina Fatimah; Ghimire, Mamata
Nutrition investments affect human capital formation, which in turn affects economic growth. Malnutrition is intrinsically connected to human capital—undernutrition contributes to nearly half of child mortality, and stunting reduces productivity and earnings in adulthood. Improving nutrition requires a multisectoral effort, but it is difficult to identify and quantify the basic financing parameters as used in traditional sectors. What is being spent and by whom and on what? To address these questions, nutrition public expenditure reviews (NPERs) determine the level of a country’s overall nutrition public spending and assess whether its expenditure profile will enable the country to realize its nutrition goals and objectives. When done well, NPERs go beyond simply quantifying how much is spent on nutrition; they measure how well money is being spent to achieve nutrition outcomes and identify specific recommendations for improvement. A Guiding Framework for Nutrition Public Expenditure Reviews presents the key elements of an NPER and offers guidance, practical steps, and examples for carrying out an NPER. The book draws upon good practices from past NPERs as well as common practices and expertise from public expenditure reviews in other sectors. This handbook is intended for practitioners who are tasked with carrying out NPERs. Other target audiences include country nutrition policy makers, development partner officials, government technical staff, and nutrition advocates. The book presents data and analytical challenges faced by previous NPER teams and lays out the kinds of analyses that past NPERs have been able to carry out and those that they were unable to perform because of data or capacity constraints. It concludes with further work needed at the global and country levels to create the conditions necessary to conduct more comprehensive NPERs.
Public Investment Management Reference Guide
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-02-26) Kim, Jay-Hyung; Fallov, Jonas Arp; Groom, Simon
The Public Investment Management (PIM) Reference Guide aims to convey country experiences and good international practices as a basis for decisions on how to address country-specific PIM reform agendas. The country references are drawn largely from previous diagnostics and technical assistance reports of the World Bank. The application of country diagnostics and assessments has revealed a need to address the following issues when undertaking a country reform in PIM: • Clarification of the definition and scope of public investment and public investment management • Establishment of a sound legal, regulatory and institutional setting for PIM, making sure it is linked to the budget process • Allocation of roles and responsibilities for key players in PIM across government • Strengthening project pre-appraisal, appraisal, and selection/prioritization procedural guidance, and deepening project appraisal methodologies • Integration of strategic planning, project appraisal/selection, and capital budgeting • Management of multiyear capital budget allocations and commitments • Ensuring effective implementation, procurement, and monitoring of projects • Strengthening of asset management and ex post evaluation • Integration of PIM and public-private partnership (PPP) in a unified framework • Rationalization and prioritization of the existing PIM project portfolio • Development of a PIM database and IT in the form of a PIMIS (PIM Information System). The PIM Reference Guide does not seek to provide definitive answers or standard guidance for the common PIM issues facing countries. Nor does it seek to provide a detailed template for replication across countries: this would be impossible given the diversity of country situations. Instead, each chapter of the guide begins with an overview of a specific reform issue, lists approaches and experiences from various countries, and summarizes the references and good practices to be considered in designing country-specific reform actions.
Governing Infrastructure Regulators in Fragile Environments: Principles and Implementation Manual
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-07-10) World Bank
Countries exiting conflict and fragility face many urgent priorities and almost invariably suffer from substantial infrastructure deficits. There is typically very little infrastructure investment during periods of fragility and conflict, and existing installations are often damaged or destroyed. The purpose of this manual is to contribute to improvements in the quality of infrastructure regulation. It does so by identifying key principles for the governance of infrastructure regulators and by suggesting how these principles can be introduced successfully and maintained over time. The introduction of cross-cutting governance principles for regulators is based on the assumption that a uniform set of governance principles can be less costly and complex for governments to implement and enforce and will provide potential investors with a more consistent and predictable regulatory environment to navigate. The manual also discusses the process of implementing regulatory governance reforms in fragile contexts. Improvements in governance frameworks for infrastructure regulators will support better and accountable regulatory decision-making, as well as increased investment and overall economic development. Case studies from relevant country experience complement and provide context to the discussion on principles.
Competency-Based Accounting Education, Training, and Certification: An Implementation Guide
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-05-14) Borgonovo, Alfred; Friedrich, Brian; Wells, Michael
This guide is designed to assist all those who are responsible for providing or overseeing formal education or practical experience that forms part of the initial professional development of aspiring professional accountants, or the continuing professional development of professional accountants. It is particularly relevant to professional accountancy organizations. It is also intended for policy makers and regulators who determine which organizations are licensed to certify professional accountants and related specializations, for example, audit professionals. The purpose of the guide is to • increase understanding of the gap between the current skills of many accountants in some regions and the skills that are relevant in increasingly digitized and globalized economies; • convey the essential features of Competency-Based Accounting Education, Training, and Certification (CBAETC); • provide a common reference framework for organizations pursuing CBAETC and the consultants working with them; • assist countries in developing in-country plans and implementing in-country processes that produce accountants with higher-order skills relevant to their economy’s rapidly evolving needs; and • improve financial reporting, auditing, and regulation. This guide complements and builds on International Education Standards (IES™) of the International Accounting Education Standards Board™ (IAESB™).
Ensuring Quality to Gain Access to Global Markets: A Reform Toolkit
(Washington, DC: World Bank; Braunschweig, Germany: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 2019-03-12) Kellermann, Martin
In a modern world with rapidly growing international trade, countries compete less on the availability of natural resources, geographical advantages, and lower labor costs and more on factors related to a firm’s ability to enter and compete in new markets. One such factor is the ability to demonstrate the quality and safety of goods and services expected by consumers and to confirm compliance with international standards. To ensure such compliance, a sound quality infrastructure (QI) ecosystem is essential. Jointly developed by the World Bank Group and the National Metrology Institute of Germany, Ensuring Quality to Gain Access to Global Markets: A Reform Toolkit is designed to help development partners and governments analyze a country’s QI ecosystem, provide recommendations to design and implement reforms, and enhance the capacity of QI institutions. The toolkit’s 12 modules provide a systematic, holistic knowledge resource—supported by practical case studies and examples—for QI diagnostics, reform interventions and approaches, and monitoring and evaluation. Related diagnostic tools are also available online at http://www.worldbank.org/qi and https://www.ptb.de/qitoolkit.
License to Drill: A Manual on Integrity Due Diligence for Licensing in Extractive Sectors
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-06-22) Votava, Cari L.; Hauch, Jeanne M.; Clementucci, Francesco
Natural resources have the transformational potential to support economic and political stability as well as contribute to national prosperity and economic development. However, in countries dependent upon natural resource sectors, poor management of these sectors often contributes to corruption, illicit financial flows (IFFs) and thus, poverty. Adequate transparency and accountability in regulatory management of these sectors is a challenge for resource rich countries. Poor licensing decisions in natural resource management can open a pandora’s box of corruption risks. This manual provides methods and options based on good practices to improve transparency, accountability, and integrity in the regulatory licensing process and integrity due diligence. The manual borrows models from the Basel Core Principle ‘fit and proper’ concept, and provides options for conducting effective (a) beneficial ownership; (b) criminal/legal; and (c) conflicts of interest checks, with a goal of integrating these into the regulatory licensing process. The manual also identifies common legal framework defects that can facilitate corruption risks, and offers options based on principles of regulatory integrity to reduce these risks. The good practices identified can help countries allocate limited financial resources in conducting thorough background checks in a cost-effective manner, as well as meet EITI’s requirements for public disclosure of beneficial owners and politically exposed persons. These strategies for reducing opportunities for corruption in extractive sectors can help reduce IFFs that can sap resources from the economy and inhibit a country’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.